Commercial Album
''Commercial Album ''is the seventh studio album by The Residents, released on October 29th 1980 on Ralph Records. Another manifestation of The Residents' whimsical relationship with pop music and their interest in music about music, Commercial Album is a collection of forty one-minute long "commercial" songs. History and concept Commercial Album was conceived and recorded by The Residents between September 1979 and July 1980. It pares down the concept and structure of the average "commercial" pop song and reduces it to a one-minute "jingle", designed to be played three times to form a complete pop song. Commercial Album contains a compilation of 40 such sixty-second vignettes, or, the band's own "personal top 40". The group used a number of ideas in the composition of Commercial Album which had cropped up during the recording of Eskimo, but which were not appropriate for that project. The new concept meant that some songs of average length had to be stripped back to their basics for the final release. The longer, original version of "Ups and Downs" can be found on the Residue of the Residents compilation. During the recording of Commercial Album, The Residents teamed up with several artists, including their old friend Snakefinger, who not only provided guitar, but sings on "Ups and Downs". The band also recruited Chris Cutler, who had worked with them on Eskimo, and Fred Frith. The liner credits also mention "Special Secret Appearances by ?" - these were Lene Lovich, who sang "Picnic Boy", and Andy Partridge of XTC, who plays and sings on "Margaret Freeman". The cover art by Porno Graphics features John Travolta and Barbra Streisand. Release Prior to the album's release, The Cryptic Corporation bought forty one-minute commercial slots on KFRC-AM, the most popular top 40 radio station in San Francisco at that time, and used them to broadcast the full contents of Commercial Album over a three day period. According to Cryptic treasurer and spokesperson Jay Clem, "the conception, execution and marketing of the LP was intended to be more commercial than anything we've done so far. When it came time to make the choice of a station for the world premiere, we really only had one choice, since KFRC is the top-rated Top 40 station in the market and is a consistent national award-winner. Because the album has 40 cuts we wanted to premiere on a Top 40 station, and we have also pressed 40,000 copies of the album."Billboard magazine, November 15th 1980, pg 23 Commercial Album was the first Residents album to be licensed overseas, and was heavily promoted by the licencees. PRE Records in England even put out ''The Commercial Single'', which included two songs which had been left off of the album because The Residents felt that they didn't quite fit in for various reasons. Phonogram and Celluloid Records financed a short film directed by The Residents with Graeme Whifler entitled One Minute Movies, featuring the tracks "Moisture", "The Act of Being Polite", "Perfect Love", and "Simple Song". The advent of MTV in the years following the release of this short film meant that these clips received a great deal of rotation when MTV was first on the air, despite the experimental nature of the music and visuals, due to a lack of available music videos at the time. The promotional campaign was successful, and Commercial Album ultimately sold well. Despite this, the New Wave music press, which had been lavish in its praise of the albums from Fingerprince to Eskimo, decided that Commercial Album was not at all interesting. Suddenly, The Residents were no longer the darlings of the alternative music world. This, combined with some internal frictions, led The Residents into a period of frustration which culminated in the conception of The Mole Trilogy. Reissues reissue, 2004]]The album has been reissued a number of times on CD. The ESD Classic Series reissue includes ten "bonus babies", including "Diskomo", "Shut Up Shut Up" and "And I Was Alone" from The Commercial Single, "Theme for an American TV Show", a cover of the Ramones' "We're A Happy Family" from the Miniatures compilation, "The Sleeper", "Boy In Love" and "Jailhouse Rock" from Residue of The Residents and the later singles "This Is A Man's Man's Man's World" and "Hit The Road Jack". The album was reissued in a deluxe hardbook edition in 2004 on Mute Records. The Commercial DVD In 2004, The Residents expanded upon the concept of their original "One Minute Movies" by creating a number of new videos for each song on Commercial Album, and commissioning independent filmmakers to create additional videos, thus resulting in multiple alternative music videos for each track on the album, all of which were released on The Commercial DVD. Track listing # Easter Woman (1:03) # Perfect Love (1:03) # Picnic Boy (1:01) # End of Home (1:04) # Amber (1:02) # Japanese Watercolor (1:02) # Secrets (1:03) # Die in Terror (1:03) # Red Rider (1:02) # My Second Wife (1:02) # Floyd (1:03) # Suburban Bathers (1:04) # Dimples and Toes (1:03) # The Nameless Souls (1:04) # Love Leaks Out (1:04) # Act of Being Polite (1:03) # Medicine Man (1:04) # Tragic Bells (1:03) # Loss of Innocence (1:04) # The Simple Song (1:02) # Ups and Downs (1:04) # Possessions (1:03) # Give It to Someone Else (1:03) # Phantom (1:04) # Less Not More (1:03) # My Work Is So Behind (1:04) # Birds in the Trees (1:04) # Handful of Desire (1:04) # Moisture (1:04) # Love Is... (1:03) # Troubled Man (1:04) # La La (1:04) # Loneliness (1:04) # Nice Old Man (1:04) # The Talk of Creatures (1:04) # Fingertips (1:04) # In Between Dreams (1:03) # Margaret Freeman (1:03) # The Coming of the Crow (1:04) # When We Were Young (1:02) pREServed edition (2019) Released alongside Eskimo in January 2019, Commercial Album is the seventh installment in The Residents' pREServed series of expanded and remastered editions of their catalog of albums. A two-disc set, it contains the additional tracks from The Commercial Single, as well as other songs featured on previous CD reissues of the album, and a considerable amount of previously unheard material, such as outtakes "Kraftwerk" and "Cosmetics for Reality", 1982 studio rehearsals, the new versions of Commercial Album songs recorded by The Residents in 2004 for The Commercial DVD, and live versions of songs dating from 1986 to 2015. Track listing (*) indicates tracks which are previously unreleased. Disc 1 Commercial Album + Bonus Tracks # Easter Woman (1:03) # Perfect Love (1:03) # Picnic Boy (1:03) # End of Home (1:03) # Amber (1:02) # Japanese Watercolor (1:03) # Secrets (1:03) # Die in Terror (1:02) # Red Rider (1:02) # My Second Wife (1:02) # Floyd (1:03) # Suburban Bathers (1:03) # Dimples and Toes (1:03) # The Nameless Souls (1:04) # Love Leaks Out (1:02) # Act of Being Polite (1:03) # Medicine Man (1:03) # Tragic Bells (1:03) # Loss of Innocence (1:02) # The Simple Song (1:03) # Ups and Downs (1:03) # Possessions (1:03) # Give It to Someone Else (1:03) # Phantom (1:03) # Less Not More (1:03) # My Work Is So Behind (1:03) # Birds in the Trees (1:03) # Handful of Desire (1:03) # Moisture (1:03) # Love Is... (1:03) # Troubled Man (1:03) # La La (1:03) # Loneliness (1:03) # Nice Old Man (1:03) # The Talk of Creatures (1:03) # Fingertips (1:03) # In Between Dreams (1:03) # Margaret Freeman (1:03) # The Coming of the Crow (1:03) # When We Were Young (1:09) # Shut Up, Shut Up (1:02) # And I Was Alone (1:04) # Electronic Elaborate Waste (1:02) (*) # Kraftwerk (1:03) (*) # Cosmetics for Reality (1:06) (*) # Rosco's Righteous Rodent (1:01) (*) # Pretty Baby (1:04) (*) # Tuxedos (1:08) (*) # No Longer Unused (1:03) (*) # Instant Hostility (3:04) (*) # Elevator Lady (2:37) (*) # We're A Happy Family (Ramones) (1:10) Disc 2 Bonus Tracks # Shut Up, Shut Up (Residue Version) (1:12) # And I Was Alone (Alternate) (1:03) (*) # Ups and Downs (Residue Version) (3:07) # Boy In Love (2:55) # Die In Terror (1982 Rehearsal) (1:28) (*) # Give It To Someone Else (1982 Rehearsal) (0:53) (*) # Love Leaks Out (1982 Rehearsal) (1:09) (*) # The Talk of Creatures (1982 Rehearsal) (1:04) (*) # Easter Woman (Live 1986) (2:30) # Amber (Live 1986) (1:45) # Red Rider (Live 1986) (1:32) # Die In Terror (Live 1986) (1:26) # The Coming of the Crow (Live 1986) (1:45) # Moisture (Icky Flix Version) (1:05) (*) # Act of Being Polite (Icky Flix Version) (1:03) (*) # Perfect Love (Icky Flix Version) (1:06) (*) # Simple Song (Icky Flix Version) (1:04) (*) # Red Rider (Commercial DVD Version) (1:09) (*) # Moisture (Commercial DVD Version) (1:10) (*) # Commercial Album Suite (Live 2005) (5:48) # Give It To Someone Else (Live 2013) (3:04) # Easter Woman (Live 2015) (2:34) (*) # My Second Wife (Live 2015) (2:28) (*) # Loss of Innocence (Live 2015) (2:18) (*) Liner notes 1988 ESD CD reissue Point one: Pop music is mostly a repetition of two types of musical and lyrical phrases, the verse and the chorus. Point two: These elements usually repeat three times in a three minute song, the type usually found on top-40 radio. Point three: Cut out the fat and a pop song is only one minute long. Then record albums can hold their own top-40, twenty minutes per side. Point four: One minute is also the length of most commercials, and therefore their corresponding jingles. Point five: Jingles are the music of America. Conclusion: This compact disc is terrific in shuffle play. To convert the jingles to pop music, program each song to repeat three times. See also * The Commercial Single * The Commercial DVD Listen online * Commercial Albumon Spotify * Commercial AlbumpREServed edition on Spotify External links and references * Commercial Albumat The Residents Historical * Commercial Albumat RZWeb * Commercial Albumon Discogs * Commercial AlbumpREServed edition on Cherry Red Records Category:Albums Category:The Commercial Album Category:PREServed